The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.

click above image for boxscore

THE GOOD: Going Deep. Evan Longoria and Sean Rodriguez brought the power to the Rays first game of the spring, with each hitting long home runs…Strong Relief. Matt Bush, Dirk Hayhurst and Rob Delaney combined for 5 perfect innings of relief. Bush and Hayhurst were especially impressive, getting their work in against the Pirates starters. And considering how much Joe Maddon likes his relievers to be able to work more than one inning, Hayhurst and Delaney made strong opening bids for one of the final bullpen roster spots…Robinson Chirinos. The catching prospect had 2 hits and 4 RBI. Unfortunately he also had 2 passed balls. It will be interesting to see if Joe Maddon uses Chirinos at 2B or SS this spring. If his bat continues to impress, he could be an interesting candidate to be the Rays 3rd catcher giving Maddon some extra roster flexibility.

THE BAD: Tim Beckham. An error in his first game of the spring is not the good start Beckham was looking for…Adam Russell. He is out of minor league options, so he will be on the opening day roster. Giving up 3 hits and 2 runs against the Pirates starters was not an impressive debut.

THE TELLING: In what could be the Rays opening day lineup, John Jaso led off, followed by Johnny Damon, Evan Longoria and Manny Ramirez. Ben Zobrist was in RF (not Matt Joyce) and Dan Johnson was at 1B…The Rays wore green St. Pete police caps in honor of officers that were killed in the line of duty recently…Manny Ramirez will play left field on Monday, but don’t look for that to happen during the regular season except during interleague games…Albert Suarez will be out 1-2 weeks after having his knee scoped.

THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…

The Rays automatically renewed the contracts for their 27 players with less than 3 years of experience. Jeff Niemann will get $950K in 2011. The rest will be at or near league minimum ($414K). [Marc Topkin]

Here are the “Manny Ray” t-shirts that some of the players wore this week. [MannyRay.com]

Andy MacPhail says the Rays are the role-model for the Orioles and not the Yankees and Red Sox. [Press Box]

that dirtbag....But gee longo do you have to wear you underwear to a professional sports game....YOUR not in COllege anymore(without money)
YOU make millions a year and look/dress like a bum or a grocery store clerk...get a little class I know the little girls don't care as long as you have the money....but if I didn't know who you were and someone pointed you out and said there's a Rays player....I would say what a bum don't they pay him...

The T- Beck error was just Beckham being aggressive, he charged a ball and he bobbled it. He showed a very nice arm though. And Russell spot is, from what Ive read, very safe for now. Remember it's only spring. One of CHirinos's hits was a bloop single, the other was a very nice double down the LF line that cleared the bases.

Chirinos should be the Rays #2 catcher, we don't need him at SSor2nd....
But that will never happen with the Maddon SHopp. sheldon love affair..
watch what I'm Telling you...SHOPP. Even though he is a disaster will see plenty of playing time which Really hurts JAso and the team scoring.....
Kaufman looks like a pena clone...remember the days when the 1st baseman was one of your best hitters now everyone is impressed with defense at 1st.....give me a hitter (DJ) I will live with the defense